Students play central role in bus crash drill

Batavia simulation helps fire department, police and schools prepare

Rotolo Middle School students participate in a training drill with first responders, simulating a bus crash. (Kate Thayer, Chicago Tribune)

Batavia students quickly hopped single-file out of the back of a bus on a recent school day while some of their classmates were tended to by first-responders.

Thankfully, the scene of a bus crash near Rotolo Middle School was just a simulation, and students were only pretending to be injured. The exercise was a joint training effort by Batavia fire, police and schools.

The experience was designed to not only give firefighters, paramedics and police practice responding to such a crash, but also the chance to test communication measures between the departments, the school and the community, said Batavia Deputy Fire Chief Randy Banker.

In times when students have smart phones, and use text messaging and social media, Banker said communication is even more crucial.

"Sometimes (parents) know before we do," he said.

Besides how to communicate information to parents and others in the school community, the exercise gave first-responders practice talking to each other, nearby Delnor Hospital and the 911 center, Banker said. A few other fire departments — Geneva, St. Charles and North Aurora — also participated in the event, he said. Typically, he added, even more would respond as part of the Chicago area departments' Mutual Aid agreements.

The exercise started with a 911 dispatch, prompting a fire truck, police cars and ambulances to arrive at the bus, which was parked down the street from the school. Inside, about 30 eighth-graders enrolled in the school's first-aid class started to jump out of the back of the bus — common practice for a crash.

A few students were assigned to have more serious symptoms, like trouble breathing or a head injury, said teacher Laura Abraham. They rattled off answers to firefighters' questions as they laid down on the parkway and eventually were loaded on stretchers. The bus driver was also taken away on a stretcher.

After the scene was cleared, the students and the first-responders participated in a debriefing.

Abraham said this is the first time students have participated in such a training.

"I wish we could do this every year," she said, explaining students will learn what to do in an emergency situation to help themselves and others by watching first-responders.

The class — a popular elective — teaches students basic first aid, CPR, how to treat certain injuries, among other lessons, Abraham said.

"I've had students come in and say they've already used what they've learned," she said.